The story about the Swedish East Indiaman

On the 12th of September 1745, the swedish East Indiaman Gotheborg headed for her home port after almost two years of sailing the world's oceans. The ship suffered heavily from storms, and the crew were exhausted but full of expectation. But alas, the triuphant homecoming would end in catastrophe. With a pilot on board and before the very eyes of encouraging Goteborgers in small boats and on the beaches, the vessel ran aground in the middle of the entrance to Goteborg harbour - and sunk with her entire cargo. Thanks to all nearby boats, all the crew survived. Repeated attempts with varying success were made to salvage the valuable cargo, which was worth as much as the national budget.
Speculations was fervent. An insurance fraud? Rudder problems? A drunken captain? Eventually the East Indiaman Gotheborg was forgotten, until 240 years later when a diver rediscovered her and began a marine-archaeological excavation. The attention surrounding the find and the excavation whetted people's appetites, and led to the slightly crazy idea of rebuilding the entire vessel - in full scale using traditional techniques - and sailing to China once again.
All ingenious ideas have a degree of madness. It is there fore good to know that adventure lives on, and madness still flourishes at the Terra Nova shipyard. Soon that very same madness will take the Swedish East India Company to China.

Ship building

The keel of The Swedish East Indiaman was places on the 11th of June 1995. But not until a year later the production was started for real, making the frame of the ship (the "ribs" of the ship). In november 1998 all the frame timber where att place together with the stem and the sternpost. After this the mounting of inner and outer reinforcement and also deck beams where fitted to hold the pine decks. This was completed in October 1999 when the planking of the hull was started. The Swedich East Indiaman will have three decks except the Hold (under deck) and the Sun Deck. The decks are raised with 10 cm each since people are a bit taller today than during the 18th century. She ship is built according to traditional shipbuilding methods with help from modern tools of today.

PS: for more info go to http://www.soic.se